100.2 Sudden Death

[solstars]

1000.2 Sudden Death

Happy new year to everyone! It wouldn't be a new year without a new problem. My VIP 722 started popping up with "partial signal loss" messages on tuner #2 yesterday afternoon. I was on the same channel as tuner #1, but #1 was working fine.

After a bit, the channel came back on tuner #2, but was noisy and obviously suffering from signal loss. Some time later, tuner #1 stated showing the same signal loss message. I did a reset on the receiver and noticed that I can only see the 110 West sat regardless of which sat is selected in setup.

This all started after a sudden temperature drop. It seems that as the temp dropped, the problem got worse. Today, I still have only a few channels available and can only see 110. Selecting either 119 or 129 only results in "Wrong Sat - Echostar 110 West" being displayed, but the signal level on 110 is good.

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this? I know there were some cold weather issues with certain Winegard LNBFs, but I though those were only on the Direct systems. I replaced my old Dish 500 in April, so this 1000.2 has not yet seen a cold Colorado winter. I have had zero issues with it until today.

I don't know if those LNBFs have died, but it seems more like the internal switch may not be working. Could it have frozen up? I only have the one VIP722 connected to a single coax RG-6 run that is about 20 feet long. My Dish is down low so I thought about puling the LNB unit and bringing it inside to warm up for a bit. Am I wasting my time on this? Should I be looking at something else?

We had some snow (just a couple of inches) and no wind. We do have some cloud cover, but not enough to totally block 2 sats. The bitter cold is what I suspect.

Thanks in advance for any tips you can give me!

 

[solstars]

Update: Brought the LNB in for a bit, put it back and all now works perfectly. I don't know if it was the warmth or just the act of removing power for a while that fixed it. Either way, it looks like I need to replace my LNBF unit. Does anyone know of these having cold weather issues? Is there a better aftermarket LNBF pack for this antenna?

 

[TheKrell]

If you pull the LNB assembly, you could easily select a different output port...

 

[solstars]

I put it back using the same configuration (connected to port 1), so it's not the port. If it fails again, and I'm sure it will, I'll switch to port 2 or 3. I don't know if that's going to make any difference. Odd that it didn't do this until the temp got low.

 

[Brisak]

It's a known 722 problem,I have one a week that fails with that same problem.

 

[solstars]

This has nothing to do with the receiver. A 301 on port 2 exhibited the same problem. Problem only resolved after warming the LNB. It cut out again a little while ago... connected 722 coax to port 2 and no go. Connected 722 back to port one and a 301 to port 2. 301 reports switch error. Removed LNB again and brought in to warm up. Reconnected 722 back to port 1 - works. Connect 722 to port 2 - works. Connected 722 to port 1 and 301 to port 2 - both work. This is absolutely temperature related and it seems that this LNB has some type of problem.

I would still like to know what to replace it with. A quick web search shows me just the OEM replacement, which would be fine as long as I know these don't have temperature problems. I'm sure there are many others using these same LNBs that are in cold climates. If some could chime in, that would be great.